So That Was Fun

It's been a somewhat eventful week.

Over the weekend, we fired the kiln (as I mentioned last time). Sometime during the weekend, I also accidentally set off the house alarm at Judi's (the first time I've ever done it in all the years I've been house-sitting for them). So that was fun.

(The only other time I've ever set off a house alarm was when I was in high school and I set off the house alarm at my friend Nikki's house. I was staying with her while her parents were out of town and she and I had class in the morning. I didn't have an afternoon class, so she dropped me off at her house at the end of lunch and I let myself in using her key. Neither of us knew that the maid had set the alarm as she left. I had no idea how to turn it off. Nikki had already driven away by the time I figured out what was about to happen.

The alarm was a loud, blaring thing. You could hear it all over the neighborhood.

This was in the days before cell phones. One of the neighbors called when they heard the alarm and I wasted precious time explaining to her who I was and why the alarm was going off. It was a waste of time because I was trying to get hold of Nikki by calling the school. I did finally reach her. We had a twenty second or so conversation before the phones cut out, a common feature to house alarm systems apparently.

After about fifteen or twenty minutes, the alarm reset itself and went silent. And then the police showed up. I had to re-trigger the alarm to open the door to go outside and talk to them. They were satisfied with my explanation and drove away without even getting out of their car. Unfortunately, that left me with another twenty minutes of a blaring house alarm.

I had a recital the next day--I played the cello--so I used the rhythmic drone of the blaring alarm as a kind of metronome to practice my piece until Nikki came home and shut off the alarm.

So that was fun.)

On Monday, my last day sitting with Crunch, Dave and I went to lunch with my mother. (We had originally planned to go to the wine fest, but it was going to be a hot day and I was battling my returned hive situation (which is made worse by the heat), so we opted instead for a late lunch.)

Tuesday night Dave and I drove to Santa Fe to hear a talk by one of our favorite cartoonists, Lynda Barry.

She is hilarious and insightful. We own every one of her books and some original art by her (an amazing gift from Kelly).

So that was fun.

Wednesday morning I had class, a frustratingly useless (non-)review session for the test on Monday.  When I got home, I got a text from Judi: Had I accidentally taken the remote for their house alarm? I didn't think so, but a search of my jacket pockets revealed that I had. (I wonder what that means in my dream.)

Wednesday afternoon I had therapy and I duly went and shredded my heart. After that, Dave and I had dinner with our friend Chris. (Lu Ann is out of town.) We went out for ramen and chatted for awhile in the restaurant.

Thursday was the first "Time to Get Serious about Studying" day, so I sat and studied all day. I made vaguely Indian red lentils over bulgur for dinner, then we went out for giant fizzy drinks before I resumed studying.

It's Friday morning now. I got up early to make Dave's lunch, then I took a bit of Benadryl.  (I've had to go off the meds that were working to keep my hives at bay because in addition to keeping my hives at bay, they were also affecting my kidneys in a not so great way.) The Benadryl works just enough, but it makes me feel sleepy, so I'm going to take a nap before I have to get up and study. I have to cover 1-2 chapters of material a day for the next three days.

So that should be fun.